Draft tonight! So much intrigue and suspense after the first two picks! Who will trade up/down/in/out? Will Karlsson move? What about Lucic, Kessel, Skinner, Parayko, Anderson, etc? I'm going crazy here!

San Jose can have one of Burns, Karlsson or Vlasic on the ice at all times. Scary. Still can't believe Wilson pulled off that trade... he didn't give up diddly squat. I assumed the price tag would be much, much higher.

On the other hand, I thought Bergevin did much better with the Pacioretty trade than some of his other deals. Time will tell, particularly on Nick Suzuki's development, but I thought he did better. Overall, I certainly agree that CH ownership and management are the least fun people ever and they hate everything good in the world. Broad strokes, sure.

As for Zetterberg... it's always sad when careers end with injuries like that. I hope he gets into the Hall one day, he dominated for so long. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were terrifying.

Oh yeah, and the Avs. Well, besides the potential to show that they really are a team on the upswing, they also have the luxury of already knowing they'll have one of the best draft picks in the Jack Hughes lottery thanks to Duh-rion in Ottawa. (All the Sens had to do last year was not trade for Duchene and offload Karlsson and Hoffman at the deadline for full value. They'd be set for years.)

As an aside, the Caps will be playing without Tom Wilson who is serving a 20 game suspension by the NHL. He needs to change his playing style.

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“Meaningless distraction drains you of the energy you should be placing into more serious things or using to simply enjoy the rewards of your labor.” Bruce Springsteen"I am guilty" davedoerfler

Yeah, Tom Wilson really has to screw his head on. Four suspensions in a year, two of them in pre-season. That hit was completely avoidable and dirty. I have no doubt that losing 20 games and $1.2 million will help a little. They went from slaps on the wrist to lashes with him.

Originally Posted By: Sven Golly

Originally Posted By: MAJUSCULE

I'll tell you one thing... Toronto fans (and media) are next-level annoying now that they've signed Tavares. Gonna be hard to walk that walk all the way...

Vegas seems to disagree with you.

What, because they made it to the Cup final last year? Completely different situation and you know it.

Come at me, I've been practicing ripping on the Leafs since before I could talk.

Caps off to a good start, no Cup hangover. First three games tally 18 goals and get 5 out of 6 possible points.

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“Meaningless distraction drains you of the energy you should be placing into more serious things or using to simply enjoy the rewards of your labor.” Bruce Springsteen"I am guilty" davedoerfler

Edmonton finally plays its first North American regular season game tomorrow against Boston. It's crazy to say it in Game 2 of an 82 game season, but this opening road trip will pretty much make or break the year for the Oilers.

I was scared Edmonton would be the only team without a point. Thankfully, Connor and Cam pulled out the win over an objectively weak Rangers team. Hopefully, the secondary scoring shows up someday and the defence settles down.

I'm very impressed by Carolina so far. They are young, fast, and skilled. Montréal has started well too, considering expectations.

Toronto was killing everybody until Pittsburgh came to town and showed the rest of the league how to throttle their offense. Now they can't score, with or without Matthews. Any truth to the rumour that the Oilers have been talking to the Leafs about a deal that would include Nylander for Nurse?

I find that hard to believe at this point... Nurse is playing well and is supposed to be a core piece, plus Bouchard got sent back to junior this morning. To be honest, we haven't heard those rumours out here at all. Methinks that's a T.O creation.

Todd McLellan fired and replaced by Ken Hitchcock this morning... curious to see how the team responds, even if it won't fix a flawed roster. The Oilers have been very inconsistent under McLellan. Perhaps they'll take to Hitch's style. If they miss the playoffs, Chiarelli will be cleaning out his desk in a hurry.

Hitch is a curious choice, especially with Quennville still out there. His reputation as a defense-first hardass is well-earned. He's famous for butting heads with gifted scorers like Brett Hull and Vladimir Tarasenko and demanding they pay more attention to defense--and benching them ruthlessly if they don't comply. His system, while boring to watch, had some positive results with a loaded Dallas team during the dead puck era: one Stanley Cup win, famously decided on an ugly in-the-crease goal so tainted that it still rivals the pain of "wide right" in the hearts of Buffalo sports fans. His St. Louis teams were always tenacious on defense, good enough to make the playoffs regularly, but they could never score enough to make serious cup runs. The game got faster and more wide open, and his teams didn't seem to adapt very well. Still, Mike Babcock thought enough of his abilities to choose him for his Team Canada staff. The key to Hitch's success in Edmonton IMHO is going to be in the relationship he forges with Connor McJesus. If McDavid buys in to whatever system he imposes, then it could be interesting with the all the latent talent on your roster. If the two don't click, I fear the very big generation gap between Hitch and his charges will lead to yet more heartbreak for Edmonton fans.